Presenter: Haley Speed – Biology
Faculty Mentor(s): Eric Selker
Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation
The kynurenine pathway is a metabolic pathway that degrades tryptophan into NAD+ and several other essential biomolecules. In humans, the kynurenine pathway is closely tied to healthy and disease states, and current research indicates that altering the activity of the pathway could have therapeutic benefits. This ancient pathway is also conserved across all eukaryotes. Previous work from the Selker lab using the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa as a model organism suggested that the regulation of this pathway is intertwined with general chromatin control processes, including H3K36me and chromatin remodelers. My research aimed to identify novel regulatory factors affecting this pathway. I used a phenotypic screen of the Neurospora Functional Genomics Project strains. In addition, RT-qPCR analyses of RNA for kynurenine pathway enzymes helped reveal which strains were abnormally inducing the pathway. In total, five genes of interest have been identified as potential regulators of the kynurenine pathway, including one factor also tied to MAPK pathway induction. Further research is needed to characterize these genes to understand how they may function to regulate the kynurenine pathway, or if their regulatory function is tied to chromatin control.